HALF-TIME WORKER

A worker who is hired for half of the usual time associated with a given position.

"The structure of the work force has shifted; households have added the equivalent of one half-time worker, in response to lower wages. This additional worker is most often a woman, usually the household head, working in the informal sector."
(Murphy., A., et al., The Sociodemographic Effects of the Crisis in Mexico, University of Texas at Austin, 1991, visited 2009-07-28)

For many workers, working half-time is a voluntary choice as it may be an ideal way to achieve a work-life balance. But for others, it is a mandatory work schedule imposed by the employer.

The Evolution of Working Times by Countries

"Roughly three-quarters of Dutch jobs created since the 1980s have been part-time, with the part-time proportion of total employment growing from 18.5 to 32.1 percent in 2000, by far the highest share in the OECD (average than 16 percent) (OECD 2000). Rising part-time work is part of the new "one-and-a-half-job" family, where the half-timer is almost always the woman (in 33.2 percent of households with children the man is fulltime and woman halftime, and in only 1.7 percent is it the other way around) (Visser 2002, 24). But male part time work has also risen substantially -- from 3 to 17 percent between 1981 and 1999 -- mainly as the province of rising youth and student employment (ibid, Delsen 1998)."
(Burgoon, B., and P., Baxandall, Three Worlds of Working Time: Policy and Politics in Work-time Patterns of Industrialized Countries, 2002, visited 2011-07-28)